


Too Little Too Late

by omgjasminesimone



Category: Open Heart (Visual Novels)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-02
Updated: 2020-06-02
Packaged: 2021-03-03 18:53:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24510358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/omgjasminesimone/pseuds/omgjasminesimone
Summary: Ethan always thought Casey and Bryce's relationship was nothing serious. When he finds out that's not the case, he can't stand to watch her fall in love with somebody else.
Relationships: Bryce Lahela/Main Character (Open Heart), Ethan Ramsey/Main Character (Open Heart)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 30





	1. Chapter 1

When Ethan disappeared to the Amazon the first time, he’d foolishly believed one summer would be long enough for him to forget how Casey tasted. For him to not be able to feel her fingers threading through his hair. To not vividly recall the way she gasped when he pushed her up against his window. To not have the image of her gloriously naked body contrasting with his white sheets firmly engrained in his brain.

He’d thought it would be long enough to forget the pained look in her eyes when he told her they had to be just attending and resident.

He finds the summer wasn’t sufficiently long to erase all of that.

When he returns to Edenbrook, he’s still helplessly in love with Dr. Casey Valentine. He’s still throwing lingering glances, itching to touch her, finding excuses to get her alone outside of the hospital.

But when he invites her over to his home after the baseball game, determined to tell her to hell with the professional ramifications, he wants her, he loves her, she turns down his invitation. In his car as he drives towards home, he sees her walking to the T station, hand in hand with Bryce Lahela.

It’s not like he didn’t know there was anything going on between them. He’d seen them dancing and making out at Donahue’s on occasion. He’d watched the surgical resident flirt with his rookie at the nurses’ station. And, Bryce had once mentioned he missed the prior Tuesday at the gym because he’d been fixing a leak in Casey’s sink. So it wasn’t like Ethan was blind sighted to find them together. He was just blind sighted by Casey consciously choosing Bryce over him.

He’d assumed Bryce and Casey were casual, her filing the void left by his absence with the handsome surgeon. It seems he was wrong.

Ethan heads back to the Amazon. This time determined to stay until the thought of Casey Valentine doesn’t make his heart flutter.

Three long years pass, and he never reaches the point where the thought of her doesn’t bring a warm, yet painful, feeling throughout his chest.

He finally decides to hell with it. He has no idea what’s happened over the three years he’s been gone, but he’s going back to fight for her. He’ll tell her how he feels, let her make her own decision. Maybe, just maybe, she really missed him. Maybe she realized she still has feelings for him.

His breath catches a week later when he sees her at Edenbrook for the first time in three long years. She’s seated behind the nurses’ station, filling out paperwork.

He approaches, clearing his throat when she remains focused on her task. “Rookie.” He greets.

Casey glances up, a smile slowly growing across her face. God, she’s even more beautiful than he remembered. She laughs softly, shaking her head. “No one has called me that in a really long time.” She replies.

“Well, have to keep you humble. I’ve been told you’re basically running the diagnostics team now.” Ethan replies, returning her smile.

Casey shrugs. “I was just trying to make you proud.”

Ethan’s smile grows, and his heart skips a beat. “You have no idea how proud of you I am Dr. Valentine.”

“Hmm…Dr. Valentine. No one’s called me that for a while either.” She quips, standing up to give him a hug.

His smile wavers as he’s confronted with her very pregnant stomach. He notes her wedding ring as her arms loop around his neck. He hugs her back weakly. He’s too late.

“Congratulations.” He says, gesturing to her belly and hoping he sounds sincere.

“Thanks. We just thought, man, we’re so settled and happy. Let’s upheave everything.” Casey jokes.

He’s about to ask who ‘we’ is, when an intern rushes up. “Sorry to interrupt Dr. Lahela, but I have the labs you wanted.”

As Casey scrutinizes the labs, Ethan squeezes his eye shut, fighting back tears. He’s too late. He should have come back sooner. He should have never left at all.

“Okay, observe her and let me know when she wakes up.” Casey orders. The intern nods and walks away. “I’m really glad you’re back Ethan.” Casey returns her attention to him.

“Good to be back. Seems like a lot has changed here.” He forces out, hoping his voice isn’t wavering. “Must be confusing having two Dr. Lahelas around Edenbrook.” He adds.

“Bryce is at Mass General now.” Casey informs him. “Although he is here today. An old patient requested him. Mass General doesn’t take her insurance, and Bryce is already out of pro bono surgeries for the year.”

“Is that Ethan Ramsey?!” Bryce exclaims, coming down the hall pushing his patient in a hospital bed towards the OR.

“Speak of the Devil.” Ethan mutters under his breath. He can’t help but notice how Casey’s whole face lights up with Bryce’s arrival. She’s clearly madly in love with him. Ethan’s shoulders slump. He has no chance.

Bryce claps Ethan heartily on the back, reaching his other hand out for a handshake Ethan halfheartedly returns. “Welcome back Dr. Ramsey! Man, you look great. Where were you again, Brazil? Looks like you got an amazing tan.”

“Dr. Lahela, good to see you again.” Ethan returns. He kind of means it. Bryce has always been friendly to him, and it’s not Bryce’s fault Ethan’s dream girl is in love with him.

“How’s it been coming back to freezing Boston after all that Brazilian sunshine? I tried to talk Casey into moving to California after my residency, but she loves it here for some reason.” Bryce quips, wrapping an arm around Casey’s waist and pulling her to his side.

Ethan glances at Casey before answering. “Boston might not have the best weather, but there are things here I can’t live without.” He admits.

Bryce doesn’t seem to get what he’s alluding to, but Casey’s eyes widen a little. “Well, glad you’re back.” Bryce concludes with a friendly smile. He turns to Casey, pressing a quick kiss to her lips. Ethan turns away.

Bryce raises a hand to her belly and rubs. “For good luck.” He explains to Ethan with a wink. “I was just telling Hillary here” he gestures to his patient, who’s been patiently watching this whole exchange “that ever since we found out about our baby girl, I rub Casey’s stomach every morning and I haven’t lost a patient since. And with this recharge up on the luck, you’re definitely going to be fine Hill.” He takes his hands off Casey, squeezing Hillary’s shoulders comfortingly.

“You ready?” Bryce asks the patient.

She looks up at Casey from the bed. “Do you mind if I rub too? For luck?” Hillary asks weakly.

Casey smiles comfortingly, stepping closer as she places Hillary’s hands on her belly. “You’re in good hands Hillary.” She assures.

“The best hands!” Bryce interjects, giving Casey one more kiss and waving to Ethan as he leaves.

Casey turns her attention back to him. “Ethan….” she starts before trailing off. “Why now?” She finally adds, tears welling in her eyes. “Why would you tell me you can’t live without me now?!”

Ethan looks at her guiltily. “I tried to get over you for 3 years Casey. And I didn’t. I can’t.”

Casey wipes at her eyes furiously. “Well, you have to. I’m happily married. We’re having a baby. There’s… there’s nothing left here Ethan.” She gestures between the two of them miserably.

“…..that’s not true. You might not be willing to act on it, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t there.” Ethan counters.

Casey glares at him. “No, four years ago it was there. And then you told me that you couldn’t. That nothing could ever happen between us. You hurt me time and time again. There’s nothing there Ethan.” She insists.

She storms off down the hallway, not giving him a second glance.

Ethan leans against the wall miserably. Too little, too late.


	2. Afterbirth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ethan meets Naomi, the baby he feels could have been his had he made better choices.

Ethan strolls through Edenbrook’s halls, face practically glued to Spencer Jone’s charts.

“Hey, Dr. Ramsey! Meet Naomi.” Bryce calls, stopping in the middle of the long hospital hallway. Bryce is beaming with pride as he looks down at the bundle wrapped in pink hospital blankets.

Casey has been out of the hospital on maternity leave for the last couple of weeks. Ethan had hoped with Casey out of sight, he’d be able to keep her out of mind. But of course, it wasn’t that easy.

Casey still occupies large swatches of his mind. When he’s not working, he’s thinking about her. Ethan has this terrible habit of torturing himself, imagining what life would have been like if he came back sooner, before she was completely unavailable. Imagining how things could be if he’d never left at all, if he’d fought for her, and won.

Ethan often has vivid daydreams of an alternate universe where Casey accepted his post baseball game invitation. That night should have been a new beginning, a fresh start.

Ethan would have married Casey, if that was something she wanted. Ethan doesn’t believe in marriage personally, doesn’t understand the appeal of legally tying oneself to another. But for her? He would have.

Ethan also never envisioned himself as a father. He doesn’t understand the appeal of children either, doesn’t know how to talk to kids. But he would have given her children if she wanted them, he would have been a doting father. He would do anything for Casey Valentine.

Casey Lahela, he reminds himself when the baby lets out a cry, and Bryce presses a kiss to his daughter’s forehead to soothe her.

“We’re on our way to meet my old surgical colleagues. But we can definitely afford a little pit stop for Naomi to meet mommy’s old boss.” Bryce croons sweetly to the baby, rearranging the blankets so Ethan can get a good look at her.

Usually, Ethan thinks all newborns look the same. Like, little squished aliens if he’s being honest. But Naomi? She’s a perfect blend of Casey and Bryce. Their daughter clearly got the best of both of them.

“Congratulations. She’s beautiful.” Ethan compliments, and for once he’s not just saying that insincerely to a new parent.

Bryce’s smile widens. The new father is clearly elated. Ethan feels a pang, wondering if he could have even pretended to be that happy in the make believe universe where he could father Casey Ramsey’s children.

“Isn’t she? She looks just like her mother.” Bryce returns, gently brushing his thumb over Naomi’s dark curls. The baby has been blessed with a head full of hair.

“How’s her mother doing?” Ethan asks. If Casey had chosen him, he wouldn’t have left her alone so soon after birth. There could be complications. He realizes how ridiculous he’s being, but Ethan can’t help it.

“Casey’s great, just a little tired so she’s resting in the room. She was such a champ through delivery. She’s truly incredible.” Bryce answers. Then, Bryce laughs. “But who am I telling. You knew she was incredible just from her application to Edenbrook.” The surgeon adds.

Even back when Ethan just thought she’d be an incredible colleague, her application had stuck with him. It led him to google her, and the first article was an interview about her service project providing free vaccinations in Honduras. There was a picture. And he’d thought she was incredibly beautiful. She was even prettier in person, as he discovered on her first day. And once she started talking, starting pushing back and challenging him, Ethan knew he was in trouble. He couldn’t have her, but he wanted her. So badly it physically hurt.

But he couldn’t have her. And he still can’t have her. And he’ll never have her, Ethan realizes as Bryce says his farewells and takes their beautiful daughter down the hall.


	3. Oblivious

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bryce isn't as oblivious as Casey seems to think he is.

Bryce isn’t as oblivious as Casey seems to think he is. He sees the way Casey looks at Dr. Ramsey. Dr. Ramsey is more subtle, but Bryce is very observant, a helpful trait for a surgeon. And when Dr. Ramsey slips a little, looking at Dr. Casey Valentine with unmasked yearning for a few seconds too long, Bryce catches that too.

He never mentions it to Casey. Partly because he doesn’t even want to bring up Ethan Ramsey whenever he’s lucky enough to have Casey in his arms, focused exclusively on him for once instead of the older, elusive physician.

But he also doesn’t bring it up because they’re not together, not really anyway. Sure, they hook up frequently, they’re good friends, and he’s quickly falling in love with her, but that doesn’t make them official. That doesn’t mean Bryce has any kind of claim over her.

When she and Ethan go to Miami, he wants to text her in the evenings, when the conference events should be over. To test how long it takes her to reply, so he can gauge whether or not she’s with Ethan. But he doesn’t, because he doesn’t really want to know.

He suspects something did happen though, because she’s distant when she gets back. But Bryce doesn’t give up that easy. He can be patient, wait for her to hopefully come to the inevitable conclusion that she and Ethan can’t really be anything. She’s too good of a doctor to throw it all away for an inappropriate relationship with a superior. In the meantime, he tries to focus on his work, on getting back on the surgical team’s good side.

But then Ethan quits, and Casey goes to ask him to speak at her hearing. And after the hearing, when Bryce is pleasantly surprised by Casey approaching him instead of Ethan at the bar, she tells him what happened when she went to Ethan’s as the two young doctors lie naked in her bed.

It’s hard to listen to, now having confirmation of what he’d long suspected. But he keeps his temper in check, helped by the fact that he’s currently the one in her bed, running his fingers up and down her bare back.

“I…I think I just needed to get him out of my system. And now that he’s back at Edenbrook, it won’t happen again. It can’t. He’s made that very clear.” Casey concludes. She’d been blankly staring at nothing, but now she raises her head from his chest to look at him. “Say something Bryce.” She pleads.

Bryce swallows past the lump in his throat. “Why are you telling me this Casey? To let me know that now that you can’t have who you really want, we can keep doing whatever it is we’re doing?” Bryce asks. He didn’t mean to blurt that all out, and she looks hurt.

“No Bryce. You were never my second choice. What I have with you is so important to me. Whenever something good, or bad, happens to me, you’re the first person I want to tell about it. Whenever I see you, I feel my mood brightening. I don’t want secrets between us anymore. I want to start fresh. That’s why I’m telling you.”

He still has his secrets though. Now would probably be a good time to admit he’s from that Lahela family. But he doesn’t. Bryce doesn’t want to scare her off, not when it seems like he might finally have her.

Ethan leaving for the Amazon is great for Bryce. Casey did seem a little sad at first, but Bryce is quick to attempt to cheer her up, to distract her from missing the older physician.

Things between Casey and Bryce are great that summer. But Bryce can’t help but feel a little threatened when Dr. Ramsey returns. And it doesn’t help that Keiki shows up shortly thereafter, exposing his secrets.

But Casey takes it all in stride, another pleasant surprise. Bryce was sure he was going to lose her, but she’s right there, helping Keiki settle in, staying over at his place more, comforting him because basically becoming a father overnight is hard. And although they still haven’t explicitly defined their relationship, it feels serious, exclusive. He trusts in her, and their bond. He’s no longer worried about Ethan Ramsey.

He even befriends the older doctor, becoming gym buddies. Their friendship is a little awkward, with Bryce trying not to talk about Casey because it’s obvious the senior doctor still has feelings for her. But sometimes, things just slip out. Like when he casually mentions he couldn’t make The Boys workout the prior week because he was fixing Casey’s leaky sink. The hurt on Ethan’s face quickly has Bryce kicking himself, silently vowing to be more careful of his words in the future.

Bryce isn’t as surprised as the rest of Edenbrook when Ethan returns to the Amazon, with no stated return date. Bryce knows first hand how much loving Casey Valentine can hurt when it feels unrequited.

But when that love is requited? Indescribable.

…

Keiki is the one who convinces Bryce to propose. Casey has moved in by that point, and they’re basically a little family. “I’ve never seen such a healthy relationship. Way different than mom and dad. What are you waiting for?” Keiki asks one day over lunch when Casey is out with Sienna. And right then, Bryce realizes he doesn’t want to wait another moment. He immediately goes out, buys a ring, invites Casey out to dinner, and proposes that night.

He almost thinks he must be dreaming when Casey says yes.

…

“Getting cold feet yet?” Elijah asks as Bryce puts on his suit jacket.

Bryce smiles at his best man. “Not a chance. In fact, my feet are burning to get down that aisle. I really missed Casey last night when she stayed with you guys. I can’t wait to see her.”

“I saw her a little earlier. No spoilers, but dude, you’re totally going to cry when Casey walks down the aisle.” Elijah predicts.

“Keiki texted me earlier, and she also says I’m going to cry.” Bryce reports.

An hour later, Bryce practically sobs as Casey walks down the aisle towards him on her father’s arm. He cannot believe how lucky he is that he gets to spend the rest of his life with this beautiful, courageous, intelligent woman.

She smiles when she reaches him, reaching up to wipe away his tears. “You’re gonna make me cry, and then I’ll ruin my makeup.” Casey whispers, and her wavering voice makes him realize how close she is to tears.

He takes her hands into his, squeezing comfortingly. “You shouldn’t be so stunningly beautiful in white if you want me to not cry.” He counters.

…

“I can’t pee if you’re staring at me Bryce.” Casey complains.

“Oh, sorry.” Bryce turns away, leaning against the bathroom counter as Casey pees on the pregnancy stick. When she’s done, she sets it on the counter and washes her hands.

“And now, we wait.” Casey mutters, staring anxiously at the test.

Bryce wraps his arms around her, drawing her into a gentle kiss. “Why are you so nervous baby? If we’re not pregnant, we’ll just keep trying.” Bryce soothes.

“I’m not nervous that I’m not pregnant. I’m worried that I am.” Casey reveals.

Bryce frowns, pulling away from her a little. “What? But we planned this.” He questions.

“Yeah, but we just started trying and the plan felt abstract until I actually missed my period. A baby is a big change. We have such demanding jobs, and babies change marriages.” Casey counters.

“I think a baby will be an amazing change. I love you Casey. I want a million mini you’s running around here. Plus, we’re going to be amazing parents honey. I know we can juggle our careers and our family. And besides, didn’t you hear Keiki promise to move back up to Boston from New York to be around her niece or nephew once I knocked you up? That’s free babysitting services for life.” Bryce comforts.

Casey chuckles a little, leaning up to kiss her husband. “I love you. You’re going to be the best dad.” She compliments.

“And the hottest, right? Totally a dilf.” Bryce teases.

“If you continue to call yourself a dilf, I definitely won’t be fucking you.” Casey counters.

Bryce laughs, lifting her onto the bathroom counter and stepping between her legs. “Liar. You know you can’t get enough of me.” Bryce kisses down her neck, nipping a little to make her shiver the way he loves. He returns his attention to her full lips, swallowing the little moan she lets out when he pulls her flush against him.

Before they can get too carried away, the timer Bryce set on his phone goes off. They both look down at the test.

“2 lines means pregnant, right?!” Bryce asks, meeting his wife’s gaze excitedly.

Casey nods, smiling brightly at him.

…

“You’re a baby hog.” Bryce complains as Casey cuddles Naomi.

“It’s not my fault that I have the food. Plus, I’m the one that had to carry her around for ten months, and push her out for five hours.”

“That’s not fair. I biologically can’t compete with that.” Bryce whines.

Casey shrugs. “Poor you. It must be so hard to be a man.”

Bryce laughs, grinning at her. “Next time, I hope we have multiples. Then we can each have a baby.”

“Naomi is only 4 weeks old. You should not even be thinking about next time.” Casey insists.

“Well, not right away honey. But one day, right?” Bryce asks hopefully.

“….maybe. Just because she’s such a good baby.” Casey acquiesces, pressing a kiss to Naomi’s forehead. She wrinkles her nose as she smells Naomi’s soiled diaper. “You can have your daughter now.” Casey offers, passing her over.


End file.
